Sitting around the campfire that night, listening to my party tell stories while we celebrated our success, I pulled up my profile. I had broken through to Level 52 in the dungeon thanks to the corrupted octophant, so I had some skill points to apply.
My skill advancement numbers were rather even, at the moment, so I was struggling a bit with how to apply them. I had considered putting another fifty points into Strength and then use the spares on Shielded, but now that I was using my shield so much I thought I could get more out of progressing Shielded instead. I dropped ten points into that first, turning my only basic skill into an advanced skill.
Then I dropped ten points into One-Armed and Two-Armed, to make using my massive greatsword a little easier as well, bringing them both to 3% of mastery.
As my party hung out and chatted, I slowly started dropping my last twenty-two points into my strength skill, as I did not want to swell up all at once before their eyes. The points would bring me to 17.2% towards mastery, which was an awkward number, but at Level 53 I could round that off to 20% and then use the last 25 skill points bringing Shielded to 2.5%.
I looked over my updated profile with satisfaction.
“What are you grinning about?” Sidel asked me, and I dismissed the window to look at her.
“Just glad that went so well. A Gold rank quest, and none of us are even injured. Well, except Tug. You have healing draughts for her?”
“Already fed and recovered. She’ll have some scars, but we’ll have that in common,” she said, displaying her arms and showing off some scars. She started telling me about how she got some of them, and I sat back and listened to the story while sipping on some warm water—no one was bothering Estorra for ice after that fight—and chewing on some smoked sandstinger meat.
When the night started to grow late, Markas stood. “All right. We’ve got to tear down camp in the morning and we have a long journey back. Get some sleep.”
* * *
“Well done,” Gorban said to us in his office, looking down at the large dungeon core on his desk. He pulled out another bag of coin and handed it over to Markas. “Twenty gold for this one.”
Markas managed to avoid looking too pleased, and gave a curt nod. “Thank you.”
I saw the others shift on their feet in my peripheral vision. Four gold each was a tremendous payout for adventurers, especially on the back of our last payout and the various other benefits we had received to prepare for the quest.
“Any injuries?” Gatosh asked. “We can get you healed up at the Church at no cost.”
“Just some scrapes and bruises,” Markas said. “Overall we avoided taking much damage.”
“Except for Tug,” Sidel grunted. “But I already fed her some healing draughts, so she’s fine now.”
Gorban nodded. “We’ll reimburse you for those and make sure you’re stocked for the last dungeon. That is, if your party is still interested?”
Markas turned back to look at us, and I nodded, but noticed some hesitation in the others. I suppose with that much wealth in their pockets, they wouldn’t mind taking some time off from danger so they can enjoy it. Our leader turned back to Gorban.
“This final dungeon… is it more difficult than the last?”
Gorban paused, surveying us. “It is.”
“We’re only Silver rank. The Gold dungeon went… fine, but if this one is even more problematic…”
“Hmm,” Gorban said with a frown, and looked at the rest of us. His eyes met mine, and I decided to offer up an idea.
“Actually, I wouldn’t mind re-evaluating my rank. That’s doable, right? Although, it costs a silver…”
Gorban sighed. “I’ll waive the fee,” he said, standing and walking to the door to his office. He stepped outside and called down to a receptionist. After a few moments, he walked back into the office with the adventurer scale, and set it down on his desk.
Markas looked back at me, and I motioned to it with my chin. “You first, party leader.”
The warrior grunted, then stepped forward and activated the scale. It lit up to display his rank, and Gorban tapped the scale to confirm it was accurate. “Gold rank. Congratulations, Markas.”
I had already known that he had blown past Level 45 since I had first met him, but I acted surprised and clapped him on the back.
Estorra went next, and also was Gold rank. The new magic had really helped her gain experience and push through a plateau. Sidel still was appraised at Silver rank, but she was already a Gold rank tamer. She shrugged, though I could tell she was a bit peeved. I would not be able to tell her, but she was very close, and if she could manage to tame and raise another Gold rank beast, she would probably earn enough experience in that time to hit Level 45 as well.
Rashir was also Silver rank still, and he accepted it with the same casual grumpiness as he did everything. With those venom arrows, he can probably grind pretty quickly, if he went out and did some hunting for experience instead of meat. Not that I can explain that to him, either.
Finally, it was my turn, and I allowed the scale to work properly and accepted Gold rank as well.
“Well, I suppose we’re not exactly Silver rank anymore,” Markas sighed. “Still…”
I caught Shirel’s eye, and nodded.
“The reward for the final core will be fifty gold,” Gatosh said.
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“We should do it,” Rashir said immediately. Markas looked back at the hunter, raising an eyebrow at the one party member who was definitively under-ranked for the quest. “Come on, Markas. Ten gold each? On top of what we’ve already earned. We’ll be set up for years.”
“If we survive,” he retorted. Markas turned to Estorra and Sidel for backup, but the promise of the payout was swaying them, as well.
“...We can probably manage it,” Estorra said slowly. Sidel nodded.
Markas sighed. “Fine. Show us.”
Shirel spread a map on the desk, showing the location of the final dungeon. It was south, in the desert.
“That’s going to be a rough journey,” Sidel said as she looked over the map. Markas looked at her, and she shook her head. “We should still do it. I’m just saying. It’s going to be hot, dry, and bad for hunting and foraging.”
“Maybe we could travel down the coast, so we can fish and Estorra can desalinate water,” I said, leaning over. “Then cut east around here.”
“How many days of travel would that be?” Estorra asked.
“Maybe… five days down the coast?” Sidel said with a slight frown. “Longer if we rest at midday. We wouldn’t want to overshoot, though. Then however long it takes to cut east through the desert.”
“The artifact will help guide you,” Gatosh said.
“Right,” Markas said, pulling it out and looking at it again. He looked over the four of us, frowning. “So we’re doing this?”
Everyone nodded, and he turned back to Gorban, Gatosh, and Shirel behind them. “All right then. We accept.”
* * *
In addition to the promised reward, Sidel was given healing draughts, Estorra was given magic recovery potions, and Rashir was given bundles of arrows to replace those he lost in the previous quest. Markas and I were told to bring our gear to a local blacksmith that worked with the Guild, where our equipment would be sharpened, oiled, and generally taken care of to get us back into fighting form, all expenses paid.
“I could get used to this level of treatment,” Markas said as we left the smithy. “Still, it makes me wonder what’s so special about these dungeon cores.”
“Not really our concern,” I said, arms behind my head. “Let’s just do the job and take a well earned rest after.”
“You aren’t worried? You’re the frontline defender.”
“Hmm…” I said, clicking my teeth as I thought. “I think we can handle it. It’s really just that final room we have to be extra careful about. And the journey itself, which probably won’t be all that comfortable.”
“I’ll talk to Sidel about installing a canopy on the sled for shade.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea. We should have done that before the last quest.”
“Yeah. Tug can handle it now, but we tried to keep things light for her before she transformed.”
“We should pick up some fishing stuff as well. Although, I don’t really know how to fish.”
Markas side-eyed me. “That was your idea.”
“...Maybe we can just get a big net? And I can haul it in.”
Markas laughed. “All brawn, huh?”
“Well, lugging that shield around has been good for something,” I said, flexing an arm.
At that point, my illusion was basically just changing the color of my hair and eyes. I had lost all the flab I had gained since becoming the king and a father, and my strength advancements had me as fit as ever.
Not that Sera had ever complained, but I was looking forward to returning home to her when this was all done and seeing her reaction to my leaned out body.
After parting ways with my party leader, I dropped in at the Tamers Guild stables to check on Sidel and the bushcallers. The pen they were being kept in was empty, so I made my way indoors and to the tavern area where I found Sidel eating.
“What happened to the bushcallers?”
“Oh! Your contact came through while we were out east,” Sidel said after swallowing some food. “I had arranged with the Guild to accept a payment and arrange transport for them before I left, so they’re already on the way north.”
“And?”
“You were right. Worth it.” She tossed me a small bag of coins. “Your cut.”
I did not need a cut, but I also could not reject it without breaking character. I tucked the pouch into my belt. “Thanks.”
“They even put out an ongoing open bounty on them. Obviously we’re, um, busy, but it’s a pretty good one. I’d still make more on Silver and Gold rank bounties, but it’s an easy contract and close to home. Going to make a bunch of Iron and even Copper rank tamers pretty happy.”
I nodded. I was looking forward to helping Rena get an egg laying operation going when I got back north. I would probably evolve a couple as well. Will they turn into bigger birds, like turkeys? Or will they evolve in a different direction? Suppressing a sigh, I put the thought out of my mind for the moment. I would need to wait a while longer to find out.
Leaving Sidel to her meal, I found a corner to grab some food as well. About halfway through my meal, a stranger sat down across the table from me, and I noticed a cone of silence cast around us as they tapped the table in a certain way. I nodded.
“Did Rashir sell the venom?”
“Most of it,” Shirel answered through the illusion. “He kept some, presumably for his arrows and the next quest.”
“To whom?”
“Actually, he sold the bulk of it to a brewer in town. Seems like they wanted it to formulate an antivenom.”
I blinked. “Oh. Well. That’s… actually rather nice.” Maybe I have been judging Rashir a bit too harshly.
“He sold the rest to a known assassin.”
“Ah. There it is.”
“Fortunately, he’s one of mine,” Shirel said, her illusory disguise smirking at me. “His job as an assassin is mostly a cover, and helps manage the attempts on the lives of important figures in Haklan.”
“Well, that’s… good,” I said, deciding not to ask about how often the spy network actually followed through on assassinations for the benefit of the Kingdom. If Atlessoa wanted me to know, I would know. I trusted her to do what was right, although it was something to consider circling back on with my spymaster when I was back in the capital.
After discussing a few other details, I handed over a pouch with the coin they would need to make the payment for the final dungeon core and arranged how we would wrap up the last quest and my exit from Haklan.
Once we had most of the details sorted, Shirel started to stand to go. “Are you really going to be fine in this last dungeon? I’m not sure what Atlessoa will do to me if you die out there.”
“I… think so. I’m not planning on dying, but I also don’t want to see any of my party members die either. If it proves to be too much, we’ll fall back and regroup, and if we really can’t seem to win then I’ll try and convince them to retreat.”
“And then? You aren’t going to sneak back and try and deal with it yourself, are you?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I promised Sera I wouldn’t.”
“Good. We can always get it later. No one else is going out into the middle of the desert, anyway, and without the artifact, it will be hard to find.”
“Yeah.” I had enough core material to work with for the foreseeable future anyway, but I could always return in another handful of years and try again. “Well if someone does bring it back, remember: encase it in metal and keep it off the ground.”
Shirel nodded and left the table, leaving me to my thoughts. I finished my meal, wondering what we would find at the bottom of the rank A dungeon.